Diode side pumped lasers are well known in the art, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,778,020 and 5,774,488. For producing high power output from side-pumped solid state lasers, a number of diode bars have been tightly packed together to pump Nd:YAG lasing rod from symmetrically oriented multi-angles to produce high average power. However this approach has been problematic in Nd:YLF lasers. In Nd:YLF lasers, high pumping intensity along with high laser peak intensity and high average power often results in damage of the laser crystals. Prior art devices have used linearly spaced diode bars for high power applications to produce pumping energy on non-intersecting paths to avoid this problem. However it would be desirable to compactly locate the diode bars radially around the Nd:YLF lasing rod. A high pulse energy from Nd:YLF laser at fundamental or second, third or fourth harmonic wavelength at kHz repetition rates is desirable in many applications such as pumping short pulse amplifiers, dye lasers, high speed particle image velocimetry, laser welding and the like.